This invention relates to the field of vehicle tracking, monitoring and reporting to provide a warning or alert when a vehicle deviates from a pre-selected geographical reference.
In the post-September 11, 2001 world, the public has become acutely aware of the innumerable items that could prove dangerous when under control of certain people, such as terrorists. Numerous alerts have been issued by the government suggesting the use of trucks, boats, planes, cargo containers, tanker trucks, and emergency vehicles as terror weapons. With the realization of the types of vehicles and the sheer numbers of such conveyances that can be converted into weapons of mass destruction, comes the shock of how little information is known about the whereabouts of these items at any given point in time.
Fortunately, the larger of the vehicles, such as ships, commercial airplanes, large trucks and trains follow recognized routes along the highways, rivers, tracks and electronic airways in the normal flow of commerce. While these vehicles are moving, during normal operations, there is usually some information available concerning their whereabouts. However, there is no system in place that can quickly differentiate between normal flow of commerce and unauthorized use of a conveyance.
What is needed is a security system to monitor and track such vehicles and alert authorities to the possibility of mis-use of the vehicles based on an alert initiated by the vehicle upon surreptitious displacement from an authorized location.
The system of this invention meets this need by providing a security system for tracking and monitoring such conveyances referenced to pre-selected geographical coordinates and providing a communication to proper authorities when such vehicles deviates from a pre-selected area.
The Palomo et al patent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,126, teaches a system for providing an in-vehicle route display based on a preselected intended destination for a conveyance.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,008 is directed toward substituting ground based recording and storage of in-flight data for the xe2x80x9cblack boxesxe2x80x9d carried by commercial airliners. The system includes an alert signal generating phase activated when the operational data is outside normal limits. The system uses GPS (Global Positioning System) or other locating devices for geographical location of the aircraft. The communications may be by satellite, telemetry, or cellular systems. The in-flight data is transmitted to a ground based receiver and storage facility.
The patent to Haxton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,098, discloses an aircraft security system using an aircraft mounted sending unit that sends a timed signal to a central computer once the system is armed. A central computer monitors the various aircraft at a facility. Appropriate alarms are generated, if the signal is not received according to schedule. The system may also include intrusion alarms on the aircraft to indicate tampering. A tracking function uses GPS data to locate an aircraft and transmit the location to the central computer when the aircraft is within the bounds of the network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,183 to Janky et al discloses a mobile transceiver for broadcasting and receiving a radio signal in the cellular telephone band coupled with a GPS for generating a geographical fix. The device is concealed on a vehicle and can signal the police with a fix. The system is activated by an engine start, auto alarm or abnormal engine start.
Onuma, U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,178, discloses a vehicle mounted system that memorizes or stores the position of engine stop and compares that position with position of attempted engine start. The system blocks engine start if the positions do not match within a predetermined range.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,246 teaches a system for establishing an electronic geographic perimeter for items equipped with a mobile GPS unit. The permitted geographic perimeter must be loaded into the database by keyboard or other conventional method. The GPS unit continuously sends a signal to the control unit. The control unit sends an alarm when the GPS unit crosses the perimeter boundary. The system can also be used to locate particular items within the perimeter boundary.
What is needed is a system that electronically establishes a geographical position of a conveyance in its last authorized position and automatically notifies the proper authorities upon the unauthorized movement of that conveyance.
An integrated anti-terrorist security system for mobile conveyances and vehicles such as airplanes wherein an activator is mounted on the conveyance. The activator is interfaced with a geographical locator component based on RADAR, GPS, LORAN or other satellite communications systems to establish the location of a conveyance. The system includes a control unit having a computer with a CPU and memory to receive and store the geographical coordinates of the established location. A communications component of the system sends a signal to proper authorities when the stored geographical coordinates change.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the instant invention to teach an integrated electronic system which generates a signal including the geographical coordinates of a movable device as a reference location and generates an alert signal when the device moves from the reference location.
It is a further objective of the instant invention to teach an integrated electronic system that has multiple modes to provide for authorized movement of a vehicle or conveyance without generating an alert.
It is another objective to teach an integrated electronic system to provide geographical coordinates, speed, direction, elevation during authorized or non-authorized movement upon being electronically interrogated. This data may be superposed on a map.
It is yet another objective of the instant invention to teach that the integrated system continues to signal the geographical location coordinates after generating the alert.
It is a still further objective of the invention to teach integrating this system into the existing systems of suitably equipped aircraft, cars, trucks, marine craft and other vehicles.
It is a further objective of the invention to teach an aircraft monitoring system having a particular benefit for airports with unmanned facilities and small planes, for example, private planes and crop dusters.
Other objectives and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein are set forth, by way of illustration and example, certain embodiments of this invention. The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments of the present invention and illustrate various objects and features thereof.